Wednesday, October 29, 2014

A Missionary's Influence

Anyways I don't even know where to start! So at the start of the week we decided to visit this guy named Alfredo! We had visited him once before and he told that he wanted to change his life, because he had been drinking and all that good stuff. So we went to visit him. We arrived and we couldn't find him. We were going to leave when we heard him shout, "Brothers!" We turned around and he was sitting in a bus with his friends....who were drunk. He invited us in and we started to talk with all of them. We talked about how the Gospel can change your life and help you heal the wounds of drinking. Alfredo wasn't drunk only his 2 friends. One of them talked to me... and being drunk and speaking Spanish doesn't really help me... it is a double negative because I could not understand them when they talked. So we talked for a while and we asked if we could come back when they were sober.

So we went back a couple days later to talk with them! But unfortunately the others weren't there... But Alfredo was! When we arrived he looked a little sad, so we asked him what was the matter. He told us that he went back to drinking again. We told him how sad we were with his decision. And started to talk about faith and repentance. That was the most spiritual conversation that I had had in a while. I got to teach him the principal of faith and why we need it. At the end he said the prayer. It was the most sincere prayer to Our Heavenly Father that I have heard.

Yesterday was a little rough... because we watched conference in Spanish and I understood most of it but it still wasn't the same. But I want to share an experience that I had while I was going to bed yesterday. So Elder Ortiz and I arrived home and got ready for bed. We went over to our neighbors house to eat and came back and went straight to bed. I was almost asleep when Elder Ortiz shook we awake. I asked what was the problem and he told me, " Escucha" (Listen). I started to listen and didn't hear anything... but a couple seconds went by and I heard a shout of terror from the apartments in front of ours! I heard, " No me golpeo! " ( Don't hit me!) And heard the slap!! We looked at each other and I said, " ¿Que vamos hacer? Necesitamos hacer algo!" ( What are we going to do? We need to do something! While we were thinking the thought came to me that we need to pray. Before I could say it Elder Ortiz said, " Vamos a orar para ella" ( We are going to pray for her) So we knelt down together and Ortiz started to pray. During the prayer I felt something... I felt peace that she was going to be ok.

Somethings in life are tough but I know and have seen many miracles here in Peru and all have come about through prayer! I hope we can all prayer to our Loving Father in Heaven and thank him for what we have!